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The Augusta News-Review - October 14,1976 -
Walking With Dignity
By AL IRBY
Justice Harry Blackmun,
The Legal Maverick
Former President Nixon’s burning desire to pack the Supreme
Court with his so-called constitutional constructionists may have
back-fired in that Minnesotan legal maverick, Harry Blackmun. He
is his own man and other court conservatives find he isn’t always
legalizing in their philosphy. Easy going Harry is modest, polite,
and could always be depended upon and a safe addition to the
Nixon’s conservative bloc. That was the expectation when this
kindly Minnesotan was picked for the nation’s highest court. But
now it’s beginning to look as if the slight, bespectacled Harry
Blackmun was falsely packaged by the Nixon’s goon-boys. He has
been breaking away from his supposely three legal hard-rock
ideologies. The learned Minnesotan has been voting to curb the
boys-in-blue misconduct in Philadelphia, (his side lost); but to
increase Federal Trade Commission sanctions in certain types of
antitrust cases, (he won) and to extend the reach of federal
securities law in private stock-fraud suits, (he lost again). Also he
has written two of the court’s most controversial opinions, one
creating a constitutional right to abortion, the other - restricting
press coverage of a murder case in Nebraska. And the slight-built
bespectacled Minnesotan seems anything but meek at times,
accusing a predominantely conservative majority in the securities
case, for example, of “callousness toward the investing public.”
In truth, the 67-year-old Justice is showing “some basic signs
of stubborn independence” says Gerald Gunther, a Stanford
University law professor and an authority on the Supreme Court.
He maybe a very modest man, but he acts and sounds more and
more like someone who is prone to strike out on his own. At New
York University, another law professor sees the tendency to be a
rebel in Mr. Blackmun’s reserved, kindly nature may fool some to
think he is soft and timid, but don’t be fooled. That report of the
Minnesotan Justice is good news for those with liberal causes
before the High Court. The progressives have had trouble since
Mr. Nixon appointed his so-called “Constructionists” including
Justices Blackmun, Burger, Rehnquist and Powell. Generally,
liberals can count on support from only two Justices, William
Brennan and the old “Civil Rights Workhorse”, Thurgood
Marshall. To get a win for liberal causes, the so-called “swing
triumvirate,” Justices Stewart, White and Powell must be
impressed. If Justice Blackmun continues in his present maverick
way, the Nixon hard-core bloc will be cracked. It brightens
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
By Kenyon C. Burke
Abortion Legislation : Enemy Os The Poor
The positions on abortion of both major-party candidates for
the Presidency show “cruel disregard for the rights of American
women,” and represent a “vain” attempt to “curry the favors of a
strident minority and the officialdom of the Roman Catholic
Church,” according to a leading group of family planning
specialists.
In a statement approved at a meeting in Austin, Texas last
week, the National Executive Committee of the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America called upon the major
Presidential candidates, community organizations and citizens
everywhere “to recognize and address the threat which the brazen
instrusion of the Catholic hierarchy into the political process
poses for the principle of separation of Church and State.”
In backing the move to deny Medicaid funds for abortion
services, currently under review by Congress, the group said, both
Governor Carter and President Ford are “apparently willing to
single out poor women ... as the only women in our society to
have relief from unwanted, enforced pregnancy and ... to make
American taxpayers assume the tax burdens created as a result.”
And although Governor Carter has “repeatedly expressed his
opposition to a Constitutional amendment to ban all abortions,”
he has failed to endorse forthrightly the 1973 Court decisions as
the law of the land.” President Ford, meanwhile, has “repudiated
these decisions,” and endorsed a platform plank “authored by the
extreme right wing of his party which endorses an unspecified
Constutional amendment to ’protect the life of the unborn.’ ”
These positions, the family planning leaders said, sigA jy that
the candidates their responsibility a oublic
which are .heeds
Page 4
liberals’ chance in cases pertaining to racial discrimination, also
abuses in the criminal justice system, dealing with environmental
pollution and corporate “dirty tricks”.
The legal swing antics keep the High Court independent of the
whims and fancies of partisan Presidents. In recent years Chief
Justice Earl Warren was typical of this non-conformist
philosophy, and he did the most to sustain the idea. For example,
he was appointed to the High Court by a Republican, President
Eisenhower, who most certainly thought him a conservative. Mr.
Warren led a liberal court into the most legal labyrinth the county
had ever experienced in its history, the foremost outlawing
segregated public schools and other far-reaching decisions. Later
in his administration, President Eisenhower called the Warren
appointment, “the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made.”
Now the liberals can’t go bananas about Justice Blackmun’s legal
shindigs, because he basicly is a conservative, but no
dye-in-the-wool hard-nose. He still stands tall with his fellow
Nixon appointees to restrict the procedural rights of present-day
criminal suspects, and to block some recent government antitrust
suits against bank mergers. Clearly he has a sensible conservative
bent that is good for the High Court and the nation. Yet the
sharp conservative image that was a “Hall-Mark” of his early years
on the court has disappeared. These days it’s harder to see the
pattern that Nixon’s people oiginally hoped for. This may be Mr.
Blackmun’s way of developing his personal legal p hilosophy.
Justice Blackmun gave the Senate Judiciary Committee a preview
of his character when he told them that “judges, even Justices of
the Supreme Court,, are humans, and I suppose attitudes change
as we go along. By April 1972, Justice Blackmun was siding
with the court’s foremost liberal and
William O. Douglas in an unsuccessfurpettfiori to stop Walt
Disney Productions Inc. from building a recreational complex on
some unspoiled Federal lands in California. And outside the
court, he spoke out on a public scandal that was enveloping the
man who appointed him. In an August 1973 speech, Justice
Blackmun deplored “the pall of the Watergate Saga, with all of
its revelations of misplaced loyalties, of strange measures of the
unethical, of unusual doings in high places and by lawyer after
lawyer after lawyer.”
well being and wishes of the majority of our people,” and have
instead “become supine before the unproved electoral threat
brandished by the hierachy of the Catholic Church.”
The “spurious’ treatment of abortion in the campaign has
“abscured the simple fact” that the Constitutional amendment to
ban abortion “would not stop abortions, but make hundreds of
thousands of them illegal,” the group said.
And the move to ban Federal funds for abortion services
“would only deprive poor women of their Constitutional rights,
and bring back the “chaotic situation” which prevailed before
1973, in which such women were forced either to travel to other
states to obtain an abortion at great expense and risk to their
health” - or to undergo “compulsory child-bearing,” or
“back-ally abortions.”
Noting that “the only practical way to reduce the number of
abortions is to improve the practice of family planning,” the
Planned Parenthood group criticized the current abortion debate
as “highly hypocritical.” While Governor Carter has expressed
support of family planning as a means to reducing the need for
abortion, the President has evaded the fact that his own and the
previous Administration have been unwilling to appropriate
sufficient funds for the family plaiming program, or for
biomedical research to discover safer, more effective and more
acceptable contraceptive methods .. and neither candidate has
committed himself to a concrete program reversing these
counter-productive policies,” the group said.
We sadly note that both candidates by these actions are joining
the ranks of enemies of the poor. (NNPA)
Letters to the Editor
Local Community Should Fight
Racism:,Praises News-Review
Dear Editor,
The attitude of the
“Christians” at Southgste
Baptist Church is a disgrace to
the local community
specifically and to the
Christian doctrine in general.
The logic that prompts this
kind of attitude from
churchgoers is the same logic
Lthat lead the white racist
Kgime of South Africa to react
peaceful marches with guns,
Bloodshed, violence, and death,
■lis same reasoning is
Kidenced by the court ruling
■gainst the NAACP and
Eaceful protest in Mississippi
Bid, most recently, by the
■cist statements directed at
■acks by the misguided
■cretary of Agriculture. Earl
■tz. The total disregard for
Hicks permeating the Ford
■ ministration could not have
B?n demonstrated more
■ tantlv than that - and in an
■ction year to boat. The local
Higious, social, military and
Political communities should
Bin forces to come up with
■ffective procedures for dealing
Ivith Southgate Baptist and any
Bther organization or body
that seeks to degrade the
■uality of life of any segment
■eir struggle is our struggle,
■e are all fighting the same
Itemy, the white European,
Be people Henry Kissinger
■presents and not us. So
■ptory is ours as long as we
■uggle unrelentingly against
■justice and for justice.
E*
of the total community. We, as
conscientious citizens, must
maintain constant vigil over the
institutions in our
communities.
On a much brighter note,
my compliments to Mai
Millender for the scope and
quality of information
contained in the News-Review.
I was especially pleased to read
of the exploits of Abe and
Leroy Gibbons in France and
Charley at Georgia Southern.
The accomplishments of the
Gibbons Brothers and other
former basketball players from
T.W. Josey is a reflection of
the leadership of Coach James
(Poppa Tree) Roundtree.
Special kudos to Vernon
Jordan, Roosevelt Green and
Al Irby for their close scrutiny
of major issues and their
astute, concise interpretations
of the issues; and to Phil
Waring for raising the right
questions. To them and the
other staff members I say
thanks to you for a job well
done and keep on keepin’ on.
Gene A. Andrews Jr.
3220 Seymour Road
Wichita Falls, Texas 76309
Deadline
Mondays
No Exceptions
It’s Time For Blacks To Do Something About It
IT 15 UP TO US, BLACKS WHO CARE ABOUT THE BLACK
FUTURE, TO IMPOSE ORDER WHERE NONE EXISTS TODAY—
few® dlan
WE HAVE TO DO IT BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASK OUR OLD PEOPLE
TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES PASSING THROUGH A
GAUNTLET OF MUGGERS.
OfiOE COHUS
N.Y. M.4MZINE
Operation Big Vote Is Survival Politics For Black Americans
As the two major presidential candidates begin campaigning to
determine who will preside over the country for the next four
years, a coalition of more than 45 Black organizations has
launched a massive, non-partisan campaign to increase the
participation and clout of Blacks in the presidential election.
The fact that Blacks have been going to the polls in presidential
elections in decreasing numbers is now viewed as a major crisis.
According to conservative estimates, there are at least seven
million Blacks who are eligible but unregistered to vote.
When we recall how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil
rights leaders and foot soldiers marched on a hostile Selma,
Alabama and suffered the brutality of die-hard segregationists in
1965, we feel a sense of history and understand how the Voting
Rights Act resulted from Selma. We also slowly realize the critical
importance, the sense of urgency that undergirds this voter
mobilization effort.
“Operation Big Vote” represents an extension of the Selma
march. Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr. said she thought the
Washington meeting announcing the launching of Operation Big
Vote was so “critically important” that she dropped other things
she was doing to attend and lend her support.
And as another assistant to Dr. King. Rev. Jesse Jackson,
President of Operation PUSH, commented: “Every just demand in
our struggle for economic progress - jobs, quality education,
housing and health care - is inseparably connected to the size and
active influence in the Black vote. Without that power base as a
growing influence in the political life of the nation our just
Business In The Black
Ma Bell Makes Monopolies - Bell Bill Bad For Blacks
The idea that big brother is watching you normally envisions
huge cold gray IBM computers calculating your every move in
1984. But the real villain is AT&T (Ma Bell). Many people believe
IBM is bigger than AT&T. It is not true.
IBM is almost a dwarf next to the phone company. Ma Bell has
over s*/2 times the fixed assets (property) and about four times
the employment and twice the earnings of IBM. In fact, AT&T is
not only larger than IBM, but larger than the combined totals of
Honeywell, NCR (National Cash Register) Sperry Rand,
Burroughs, Control Date, Xerox and all of the 37 domestic
members of the computer Industry Association combined!
The bell bill, which AT&T and the other independent
telephone companies have drafted will put them firmly in the
computer industry and could drown their color conscious
competition. The problem for Blacks and other poor people is
that we might go down with the ship.
The Bell bill would take away power from the Federal
Communication Commission. Demeaning Black FCC
Commissioner Benjamin Hooks influence on behalf of Blacks and
other minorities.
Although many industry associations are opposed to the bill,
they have difficulty matching the numbers and financial clout of
the phone company. Ralph Nader is against the bill. But he needs
his silent consumers’ support.
The phone company hopes to put the authority to regulate
their station equipment with the states rather than the FCC.
Furthermore, Ma Bell wishes to reaffirm authority of states to
regulate station equipment even if used for interstate service.
Blacks know states rights means “racism.”
The affirmative action program of AT&T and its various phone
company subsidiaries is atrocious. On the other hand, IBM and
Xerox have been models of moderate employment for Blacks.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus must be firmly
opposed to the spreading of cancer in the neophyte computer
industry. This technological field is one oTthe'few areas in which
Blacks with skills to sell have not been regulated to the bottom of
THE AUGUSTA NEWS-REVIEW $
Mallory K. MillenderEditor-Publisher
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Stan RainesManaging Editor & Circulation Manager
Audrey Frazier Editor-At-Large ;!•
Al Irby News Editor £
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demands face defeat, as do our hopes for a better life for our
children.”
The major Black organizations, including the NAACP, National
Urban League, Joint Center for Political Studies, SCLC, 01C,
National Council of Negro Women, United Negro College Fund,
National Newspaper Publishers Association, and other Black
religious, labor, social, professional, masonic, and political groups
have made “Operation Big Vote” a major undertaking.
With the dual goal of increasing substantially the number of
Blacks eligible to vote and to raise the political consciousness of
Blacks throughout the country, in relation to presidential and
local elections, “Operation Big Vote" deserves the special
attention and full support of all segments of the Black
community.
We must mobilize for voter regestration drives in every Black
neighborhood and community in the country. Every Black person
- minister, educator, mother, father, sister, brother,
businessperson, entertainer, sports performer, disc jockey,
beautician, laborer, professional and even the unemployed - must
join the “Operation Big Vote” movement toward the elusive goals
of economic parity, freedom, justice and a better quality of life
for Black Americans.
The time for action is now! Join or start an “Operation Big
Vote” in your home, church, school, apartment building,
wherever. This is a matter of survival politics for Black
Americans.
By Charles E. Belle
the ladder by nature of color.
Congressional representative of Black constituents must call a
halt to the Bell bill. The phone company has done nothing in its
past to endear it with Blacks, women or other minorities. Ma Bell
does not warrent the support of poor people to monopolize
another industry. (NNPA)
BEETLE BAILEY
So says the VA.. • MORT WflLKEf |
VA PROVIDES NURSING
HOME GARE TO ELIGIBLE
VETERANS EITHER INI
VA FACILITIES
OR IN PRIVATE
. Zl
Contact the nearest VA office (check your
phone book) or write: Veterans Administration,
271A1; 810 Vt. Ave. NW ; Wash., D.C. 20420